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Asafa Dibaba's Conclusions on Jaarsoo Waaqoo, and National Oromo Poetry

[ Posted On: 2007-06-23 ]

Having presented in four consecutive articles the four first chapters of Asafa Dibaba's book 'Theorizing the Future', we terminate the book's online publication with the present article that illuminates the great Oromo academic's conclusions as regards Jaarsoo Waaqoo and National Oromo Poetry.

In the first article, entitled "Sociology of Oromo Literature and Asafa Dibaba, leading Oromo Humanist Intellectual" (http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Sociology-of-Oromo-Literature-and-Asafa-Dibaba--leading-Oromo-Humanist-Intellectual/24987), we re-published Mr. Dibaba's second chapter that reveals the author's considerations and overall approach.

In a second article, entitled "Asafa Dibaba and his analysis of Jaarsoo Waaqoo’s National Oromo Poetry" (http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Asafa-Dibaba-and-his-analysis-of-Jaarsoo-Waaqoo-s-National-Oromo-Poetry/26313), we reproduced the book's introduction that sets the background of Mr. Dibaba's in-depth research.

In a third article, entitled "Pylons of African Kushitic Spirituality: Jaarsoo Waaqoo and Geerarsa Oromo Literature" (http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Pylons-of-African-Kushitic-Spirituality--Jaarsoo-Waaqoo-and-Geerarsa-Oromo-Literature/26746), we re-published integrally Mr. Dibaba's third chapter that makes available the first comprehensive sociological analysis of the Oromo Geerarsa Genre of Literature.

In the latest of the series, entitled "Asafa Dibaba in Quest of Jaarsoo Waaqoo: the Quintessence of Oromo Poetry," we reproduced integrally Mr. Dibaba's epicenter of research, the content analysis of Jaarsoo Waaqoo's poetry.

Call for raising funds for a Jaarsoo Waaqoo Association!

At the same time, we want to advocate for the Noble Cause of a publication (in both hard copy and online) of Jaarsoo Waaqoo's Complete Works.

Oromos from both the Diaspora and Oromia should raise a fund, and establish a Jaarsoo Waaqoo Association, geared for the publication (bilingual in Afaan Oromo and English) of the Great Oromo National Poet's Complete Works.

In addition, the Association should be involved in seminars, further publications and documentary filmography on Jaarsoo Waaqoo.

It will be a great honour for the entire Oromo Nation and the African continent to appoint Mr. Asafa Dibaba, a most genuine Kushitic Thinker and Intellectual, at the head of Jaarsoo Waaqoo Association.

It will also be a guarantee that this Jewel of Oromo National Poetry will be sparkling to the rest of the World.

Conclusion

The primary concern of this study has been to sociologically analyze the poetic content of Jaarsoo's poetry and examine the socio-political, cultural and historical identity of Oromo literature. Attempt has been also made to explore the defining characteristics of Oromo literature, particularly Oromo poetry set within the general areas of its socio-political identity, as having a didactic role in the Oromo nationalist movement. Such a committed poetry as Finna San Gama (Beyond Adversities) is used as means of reversing the negative socio-economic order of its time so that justice will prevail.

As argued in Chapter 1, the writing of FSG in this study has been a matter of transcription, i.e., the transcoding of one medium (speech) into another (text). But, there is no reason to suppose it simple to transcribe and translate such texts from a culture whose verbal arts come from a dialect other than the researcher's dialect. The art of transcription, in this study, was therefore not a one-time activity. So much like writing, transcription too was a process. In the gradual transformations of words from elements of sound into elements of orthography tends to bring in elements belonging to writing. Thus, it has been observed that the act of transcription is also textualisation.

In Chapter 2 the theoretical impasse in studying Oromo literature has been discussed. Accordingly, the problem of theoretical demands about 'protest-bound' perceptions of the role of art more complicates the task of identifying the role of oral poetry such as Finna San Gama to serve as an effective tool of establishing the social/cultural identity of national literature. This can be true at least for two reasons. First, added to the limited range of exploitable experience of protest ethos, the critic or the theoretician is perhaps less involved in any concrete way in the liberation struggle. To the contrary, the poet and the freedom fighter composed and delivered such poetry under the dynamics of concrete situations set in the 'furnace' of the liberation struggle. Second, another possible reason to the problem of setting the role of art and settling the theoretical impasse is the relationship between history and literature. The relationship between literature and history is not a cause-and-effect and a one-sided direct one. However, in a given time and space literature may serve a didactic role of directing in some way the finna of the respective society out of which the poet is borne.

A theory of sociology of literature is constructed from the finna / life experience and demonstrated as having explanatory power in setting the role of literature in national movement and in defining the cultural identity of (oral) art. It may also serve as a 'grand theory' / 'metatheory' from which many other relevant theories derive but scarcely relevant to the real life variation of a world in which simplistic dichotomies and generalizations have little meaning or utility. What one can conclude from all this is that there is no alternative to an eclectic approach which examines everyday experience from a number of different points-of-view and then synthesizes the results into a higher-level explanation. The combination of approaches in the present study, i.e., sociology, anthropology, political economy and other paradigms derives from the dynamic nature of the finna 'everyday life experience' of the (Oromo) society.

The spirit of sociopolitical situation is revealed in Oromo literature and in related Oromo studies. The study of the sociological analysis of the geerarsa generic system in Chapter 3 clearly illustrates that Oromo oral literature reflects the daily struggle, achievement or failure, tensions and conflicts as recited in FSG I-IV. The generic system of Oromo oral literature, particularly geerarsa, described in Chapter 3 has undergone historical transformations influenced by dynamic cultural and sociopolitical situations.

At this historical juncture when literature, such as geerarsa and Jaarsoo's poetry, is taking the side of the people and observing critically the politics of the nation, the prevailing situation not only dictates the literary trend, it also conditions the direction of its development. In FSG, in order to persuade his people, the poet evolves his approach, his own social theory that he firmly believes will help the society to achieve a better sociopolitical condition. In the content analysis of FSG it has been clearly demonstrated that the subject matter and interpretation of Jaarsoo's poetry comes from the sociopolitical, economic and cultural realities of Oromo society today.

As argued in Chapter 4, in its poetic social analysis Jaarsoo's poetry attempts to go beyond the reconstruction of the past or beyond the mere deconstruction of the existing social formation. It tries to answer the questions: where now? what next? where do we go after the demise of the 'Tigre-led Abyssinian neo-colonial rule' in Oromia. Jaarsoo's poetry, like the geerarsa folk genre, demonstrates some lack of ideological clarity which could give Oromo nationalist movement a sense of direction towards the intended goal (cf. FSG III). Despite the deficiencies labeled as ideological, Jaarsoo's poetry is not simply taking on the conscientising role of art, which could degenerate into didacticism and a mere propagandist view of a politician. FSG rather reinforces a sense of determination and forwards new possibilities and alternatives, relationships and values during the course of the liberation struggle and after (cf. FSG IV). In this view, Oromo literature is expected to carry the Oromo sensibility, culture, worldview, and today, response to the people's own historical and socio-political reality. By virtue of its shared experience as a subject for new insights and artistic imagination Oromo literature, particularly FSG, is understood as utilitarian. In the geerarsa folk genre and in the much dhaaduu-like Jaarsoo's poetry Oromo artists seem to struggle with their medium for relevance, i.e., relevant mode of communication. This can be well observed in the need for generic historical transformations of Oromo literature as described in Chapter 3. Geerarsa, for instance, is nowadays transformed into protest song or a prison song. Similarly, the late Jaarsoo innovated the dhaaduu geerarsa sub-genre to recite, in a much dhaaduu-like tone, the sociopolitical reality of his people at his time and before.

Thus, the search for relevant mode of communication is presumably to respond to the socio-political and cultural realities of the Oromo today, to the dilemma of the Oromo contemporary situations, to the 'problems of/for the Oromo', and to the possibility of emergent free Oromo nation state in the Horn. To find such a necessary medium relevant to what time and place impose on the Oromo nation and on the Oromo artists depends on many factors. Experiences and responses to historical, socio-political and economic reality may not seem to have been homogenous because of external pressures and internal limitations: ecological, religious, individual and class variations among the Oromo. As a result of such a disparity there can be sometimes opposing and apparently contradictory trends in the same literary tradition, forcing the poet to redefine his aesthetic distinction. At such a historical juncture, therefore, in Oromo literature, it is unthinkable to attain a common style at present, though the purpose of the present study is content analysis, however. The age in which a common style is possible is the age when the society has achieved a common moment of order and stability, of equilibrium and harmony. The age of maturity in Oromo poetic style is expected not now, but when the society has a critical sense of the past, a confidence in the present and no conscious doubt of the future. If that variety (religious, cultural, economic, and political) is healthy to create political pluralism, so much so, it leads to literary positive growth. Thus, the Oromo stylistic or aesthetic distinction is highly determined by various factors that both the old and the new literary trends can be rooted in the same (oral) literary tradition, namely, the tradition of a didactic role in directing, first, the nationalist movement, second, the movement towards national literature.

FSG does not tell the story of an organized and systematic struggle guided by a clear ideology directing the dynamics of the Oromo nationalist movement with consistency and tenacity. The progress and direction of the existing Oromo political parties as political organizations leading an armed struggle, FSG criticizes, is far less discernible than expected by the Oromo nation engaged in the struggle (cf. FSG III). That is, by the poetic social analysis of Jaarsoo Waaqoo in FSG, national liberation struggle necessitates a clear ideology to adhere to. A struggle for liberation is much more than the isolated sacrifices of individual freedom fighters. It is not a task to be accomplished as a part-time activity by exiled revolutionaries/activists living abroad under some traumatic effects of the death of relatives and their comrades in the struggle. Liberation struggle is not the role of Oromo youths alone who are bluntly declaring, only up until recently, that they are fully committed to stand before the Tigre-led neo-colonial policy in Oromia.

The intensification of nationalist movement adhered to a clear ideology in turn helps committed Oromo poets and artists to clearly identify their role and their social responsibility and to promote Oromo literature that shows a balance of ideological orientation and artistic excellence. Such is the hope forwarded by T. A. Abdi, poet and OLF founding member, in a prefatory note to his Billiqa (1981:vii): "The fire of Oromo literature shall twinkle all over, glow, and keep pace with the liberation struggle". Where art has no clear ideology to adhere to, there will be no clear vision or mission and art gradually tends to remain subordinate to mere rhetoric. Consequently, art fails to communicate concrete facts and to maintain its artistic quality. In the content analysis of FSG the authorial ideology seems to be derived from the socio-political and historical system under which the poetry is composed and recited.

Jaarsoo's poetry is not oral-formulaic in the sense that Albert Lord analyses Homeric epics. Jaarsoo does not use in his recital poetry regular epithets but refrains which come in his recitation at every irregular interval. Jaarsoo may have used refrains and repetitive phrases perhaps to help him keep his memory on track, or for emphasis or for some artistic effect. He also re-creates myths as in FSG II (cf. Dhugaa and Cubbuu) and in FSG III, Jaldoo and Kinniisa. Thus the poet influences his audience's consciousness by appealing to their own oral experience. He communicates to the oral society by drawing on what the society knows of its own culture and history. Jaarsoo uses oral tradition in his poetry as a means of communication so much as he uses it to recapture the past. Such a combination of mythical and allegorical elements that Jaarsoo uses, I contend as a practitioner of Oromo poetic art myself, has greatly influenced the oral poet as a successful satirist who widely uses speech devises as apostrophes and tropes.

Hence, the communicative importance of Jaarsoo's poetry is meant to articulate the inadequacies of the Oromo as a nation and to indicate alternative visions towards the betterment of his people and others. The textual clarity of FSG, one may rightly argue, is on the surface level, but Jaarsoo's poems have deeper layers of meaning. As they seem to be composed for performance, his recital poetry takes cognizance of the evanescent nature of drama. By embracing his ethnic Boorana, and national Oromo culture, Jaarsoo realizes that most of his people share with him the same traditional background. FSG in the given socio-political, cultural and economic context is created on the bases of the ideas and problems which have existed in the poet's own society during and before his time. The concept of content in the study comprises both the wider Oromo socio-political, cultural and historical backgrounds and the narrower Borana context of the immediate situation of utterance.

From literary point of view, relating FSG to its cultural, socio-political and artistic contexts, one may adapt Peter Verdonk’s model of contextualised Stylistics approach, (1998:112-133) applied to the Irish Seamus Heaney’s poetry and distinguish the following basic situational contexts in which FSG is set: first, the actual audience of the recital poetry FSG assumed as elements of its context, and their interpretations affected by their own beliefs and attitudes, second, being part of the context themselves, the audience search for clues to the poem in its space and time, third, the interpersonal context, i.e., human relations as recited in the poem, fourth, the genre of discourse influencing the language of the recital poetry, as Verdonk has it, "speakers/writers are normally inclined to adapt their style to the discourse genre they are engaged in" (ibid. p13).

Politically speaking, there is a strong sense of politics and history in Jaarsoo's poetry. The great political and historical issues he raises are colonialism and the neo-naftanya (soldier-settler) rule, culture conflict, ethnic war, socio-political and economic domination under neo-colonial rule in Ethiopia today. Currently, as he indicts in his recital poetry Jaarsoo ironically refers to the new Abyssinian neo-colonialism and to his disillusionment about the repressive EPDRF forces falling short of their social, political and economic ideals. In his poems Jaarsoo draws ideas from a common cosmic pool of socio-political and economic injustice and atrocities he witnesses inflicted on his people by the Tigre-led EPRDF repressive forces today. Jaarsoo's imagination seems to be unitary and collective and therefore uniform throughout his poetry. In his poems he revolts against social injustice, corruption, oppression, and ethnic favouritism as long as those problems prevail in his environment. As he satirizes the Abyssinian repressive forces Jaarsoo became a victim of political rulers, persecuted for his outspokenness and subjected to death, a shared destiny of his people; his death that he had already prophesied.

With respect to development Jaarsoo stresses the need for political, economic, and social freedom of his people suffering from the mismanagement and corruption imposed by bureaucrats and politicians under the oppressive Tigre-led rule (FSG III, p86). Jaarsoo's tone sounds pessimistic that as long as his people have no political freedom, there will be no social, cultural and/or economic development. Culturally speaking, the indigenous culture and socio-political reality has functioned effectively in Jaarsoo's Finna San Gama by giving it deep and solid roots, concrete and relevant background and setting. The culture has provided FSG with moral and ethical imperatives, allusions, images, symbols and aesthetic direction to depict the colonial and neo-colonial onslaughts on Oromo socio-political and cultural life situations. Hence, Jaarsoo's poetic social criticism in the four tapes presented in this study has been more concerned with what ought to be than what is in the context of finna Oromo. The poet's social analysis of finna Oromo follows normative approach. In its normative aspect, a process of growth that does not lead to the fulfillment of basic human needs, and more than that to freedom of expression, self-realization in work is said to be a travesty of development, not real development. Thus, Jaarsoo's poetic social analysis of finna Oromo indicates the tenet of normative social science is concerned with what ought to be instead of just what is.

One may be forced to conclude that the search in Jaarsoo's poetry in the past, present, and future shows, the false promises, as he says, that Abyssinian oppressive forces have always made in the name of democracy does not offer concrete solutions for the Oromo concerning the existing economic and socio-political problems. In his poetry the hope for development is one of the poet's key perceptions of the future, the position that shows the poet’s own scepticism, however. Jaarsoo is so sceptic because in Finna San Gama he convincingly speaks that the Oromo are not politically well organized, nor are they economically well established internally, and yet they call upon themselves the duty to provide national freedom for themselves and moral leadership for the oppressed. This is the scepticism that remains puzzling other aspiring Oromo poets/artists caught at the crossroads striving towards national Oromo literature.

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About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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